Cypress Hill Research Papers

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What images does the 90s hip hop scene bring to your head? Usually, it brings memories of the battles of the West Coast rappers (Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre) and the East Coast rappers (Jay-Z, Nas, Notorious BIG). However, I want to point to a group that was popular in this era: Cypress Hill. They are a Hip-Hop group from the Southgate district, 7 miles from downtown Los Angeles. They were formed in the late 1980s, and their members are 2 black Cuban brothers, an Italian-American, and a multi-ethnic latino lead singer. A specific song that I chose from their discography that has Latin American influence is the song “Latin Lingo”. Songs like this one is what made the “Chicano” rap style popular (Chicano meaning an American with Mexican ancestry). Cypress Hill with songs …show more content…

Cypress commented in an interview that a person’s race does not matter and that they are open to any race listening to their music. The group recognizes that these communities are not full of one race and wants to show the world that it is okay to have a complex cultural identity. Cypress Hill wasn’t the first Latin Hip-Hop group. But, with 3 Grammy Nominations, the first Latino Hip-Hop group to go platinum, and over 20 million units sold, they were the first major Latino Hip-Hip group to have any influence. Even the slang phrase “Insane in the membrane” originated from one of their songs titled “Insane in the brain.” Their reach was incredible and popularized the genre, making a way for modern rappers to rise to stardom. Today, Hip-Hop is the most popular genre in music and it is in large part because of Cypress Hill. Hip-Hop is no longer considered part of a thugs soundtrack, but a talented and complex genre of music. This shift in culture is due to groups like Cypress Hill addressing their